Di Evantile has done a brave thing with Transformations an instrumental album broken down into episodes, all of which is done with electronic instruments or classical instruments that have been put through some sort of electronic treatment, and not a spoken word through nine tracks.

I call it brave because it's easy to take music made in this manner the wrong way. I probably have at least twenty Facebook friends who have decided they're DJ's and constantly post remixed music tracks and beg their friends to like them. This is not what Di Evantile is doing, and there's nothing pretentious or fake about the music he's made.

Evantile calls himself an electronic composer, and that's probably the best way to describe him. He's arranged an album that creates its own sound rather than subscribing to a genre. I'm sure you could take Transformations to a club and people would dance to it, and I'm sure someone could sing over it, too, but the point here seems to be the mood it leaves you in. Evantile's biography says he is trying to show us the future, and while that might seem a little absurd, he's doing a much better job than the Black Eyed Peas.

It's hard to describe the tracks because I feel certain that without titles, they instill different thoughts in everyone. I felt like each was built in a way that made me feel something different whether about the future or not. Evantile talks a lot in the album description about meditation, peace, and harmony, none of which manages to come off silly or trendy. I felt pretty harmonious while listening to Transformations, and I feel like that was the goal.

Evantile also says that it's hard to find words to describe his music, as only the music can describe itself. I agree Transformations was masterfully built in a way that depends on your imagination for you to get the full effect.

A Cinematic Electronic Adventure!

Rhetorical Digression presents listeners with a truly other-worldly experience. Just bordering on the truly abstract with minimal yet rich soundscapes, not conforming to any commercial standard, Di Evantile starts the musical journey with a few tracks that touch on the fringes between the dream-state and the waking conscious. The opening track A Point To Nowhere certainly reminds me of the electronica of old. The influence of Jean-Michel Jarre is strong here, yet at the same time the strange lonley soundscapes are fresh and seem to hint at where the reast of the album is headed. On the opening tracks, rhythms almost form and are pushed away into nebulous clouds of ethereal pads and angelic synths. However, each track seems to bring more cohesion and more structure. One of my favorite tracks One-Click Blues has a sexy lush groove made to chill in the late nate or early hours. With a solid groove and beautiful cosmic echoes (remenicent of Lonnie Liston Smith) here makes me realize just how far we have come from formless to form. Yet even here the comsic echoes remind us that we have not gone very far. My other favorite tracks on this beautifully cosmic album would be Adrenaline Switch and Sourse of Radiation. The last track Behind Existence takes us back to the beginning where we are once again treated with a lush dreamlike landscape of sounds with a smallest hint of a structure to sail us to our next destination. Individually some of these tracks may seem disconnected, but as a whole this Album flows wonderfully from beginning to end. While its deep cosmic relaxing textures may present a problem listening to in deep traffic Di Evantile has put together an excellent CD to chill or relax to.

Dub_Ninja from SubsonicTemple

Di Evantile and his first album, Rhetorical Digression blew me away with its amazing diversity of electronic music, old-school retro EM, chill-out, and a few other related subgenres. The CDs look and lack of liner notes had me concerned at first, but upon the first playing, I realized I was in capable hands. The sound samples I had heard before soliciting the CD were pretty good, but even with this brief preview of the album I was unprepared for Di Evantiles exceptional adeptness at covering many types of ambient and electronic music with such self-assuredness. A Point to Nowhere celebrates retro EM with a combination of Berlin school and associated synths. Whirly-gigging keyboards, a mysterious sounding background sequence and an overt air of spaciness underscores the songs title. Contrast that with the disturbing fluidity and glorpiness on Mirror of Chaos with a forlorn lead synth, muted piano notes, dripping/dropping noises and eerie voice effects, all on top of a haunting drone. The Wind Became Stronger morphs from an electronic spacemusic/ambient prologue into a burbling percolating sequence with associated weird electronic effects scattered here and there. As the track builds, Di Evantile adds more layers, a blast of synth flute and tribal-esque vocal snippets, all of it culminating in a miasma of hand drums and percussive beats which may remind you somewhat of Michael Shrieves Transfer Station Blue. One-Click Blues transitions to a more contemporary chill-out motif, featuring heavy thumping bass beats, way cool Fender Rhodes-ish reverbed solos, trap kit rhythms, and plenty of swirling keyboard embellishments. The skitching beats and abstract yet melodic electronic spaciness of Impulse of Silence might remind some listeners of the darker songs from Depeche Modes Violator, such as the similarly titled Enjoy the Silence or Halo. One of my favorite tracks on this CD is Downtown, a slice of jazzy snazzy funky chill-out that chugs and pumps along with some of the coolest blending of synths and bass beats Ive heard in a while. Adrenaline Switch mines the same type of rhythmic ambient as Todd Fletcher does under his pseudonym psychetropic. Both artists explore a cheerful high energy fusion of assorted peppy beats and flowing melodic synthesizers which paint visual images of futuristic landscapes abuzz with activity. Closing out the album is the non-rhythmic ambient/spacemusic tune, Behind Existence, with its lush layers of flowing keyboards, synth pads and ebbing/flowing SF-ish washes. One might be tempted to opine that Di Evantile is a mere imitator of the artists mentioned above (or others unspecified), but nothing could be further from the truth. While I hear some artistic similarities scattered throughout Rhetorical Digression, the mere fact that a single artist can be influenced by so many diverse artists and carry it off so well on a single recording leaves me impressed, to say the least. Honestly, most EM and ambient artists are influenced by someone anyway, so whats the big deal? If you enjoy a broad spectrum of both retro and contemporary electronic music (with a little more emphasis on the latter), this CD certainly deserves a shot at being added to your collection. I sure hope this is not the last we have heard from Di Evantile. Highly recommended! Rating: Very Good

Bill Binkelman
Music Reviewer of New Age Reporter

This release from 2007 offers 42 minutes of electronic pop music. Versatile electronics provide a luscious foundation for peppy embellishment and nimble rhythms. Central melodies cavort with frisky exuberance, and peripheral accents chitter with the same exhilaration, generating a solid dose of cheery tuneage. Shrill tones establish riffs that are tempered by additional harmonics, producing an electronic pastiche that is alluring and invigorating. Keyboards trigger crystalline chords that glitter with attractive charm. Moodier tones contribute a sobering foundation at times, enhancing the sparkle of the lead threads. Percussion lends suitable locomotion to the tunes, whether the beats are lively and snappy, or when the tempos adopt a more languid temperament to propel slower tracks. These compositions display a wide range of styles, from bouncy pop to brooding ambient soundscapes. The energetic pieces are crisp and delightful, evoking a definite sense of jubilation in the listeners. The moodier tracks retain a subliminal sprightliness that bestows a sneaky optimism on these placid structures. Fans of the Chemical Brothers and Depeche Mode will enjoy this release.

Matt Howarth

My immediate response to Inertia was, Oh no, digital pitter-patter, this is going to be boring; all the sampled midi stuff is not really music anyway. Then, right about the time I decided to put aside my often stuffy, somewhat elitist attitudes regarding the conventions of musical expression you know, acoustical instruments, the sound of human fingers across metal or nylon strings, the nuances and timbres present in the fiber of skin covered drums, the natural decay of volume following a cymbal crash or the subtle overtones the ear discerns lofting from the metal alloys I began to get drawn into a kind of haunting pull from this composers expression. As I listened, I realized I was responding from a primal place. This composer has found an effective basis of form and expression that corresponds with human emotion. I do find that interesting considering the aural medium is digitally constructed. Di Evantile has a good grasp of the tools available to him and, as any good craftsman will, orchestrates the voices into a good marriage. I especially like his use of the glass bottle sound on the first track, Inertia. As the fairly well studied percussionist I am, I figured Id grow weary of the rhythmic ostinato and four-bar phrasing present in most all of the tracks. Things are kept interesting, however by subtly offering differing voices to color the texture. I think one call be lulled into a sense of over simplicity regarding the form, but I think thats exactly why it works so well. There is breathing room in the phrasing allowing one to accept and really hear why the next change makes sense. This is especially true for the track, Glassy Cracker and Element of Happiness. There is certainly a sense of overall form to the CD as a whole and one could make a case for that, though that may or may not have been the intention. With the first four tracks in the key of A minor and the journey to the final track, Decompressed, a sort of hymnal sign off, I did have a sense of connection between the pieces; a kind of walk through someones dream. If you are looking for mood music, meditative background with a lover and a glass of wine or a companion to exercise or road travel, you should get this CD. Even if youre a bit of a stuffy elitist like me, you owe it to yourself to hear and appreciate what Di Evantile is doing with his tools of the trade.

Beatrice Clarke

How I Feel About It :

We reviewed Di Evantiles Inertia last December and I remember thinking that Beatrice Clarke went a little easy on it. It seemed a little too Animatronics, too machine-like and the keyboard sounds seemed too cheesy and overused. Even if it was superbly orchestrated (and some of it well-played) it sounded a bit hollow and soulless to me. So imagine my surprise when I drew Infrared Clock to review. I thought, Heres an excellent chance to set the record straight. But Di Evantile changed some things, and for the better. This album is dreamy and trance inducing. Its the perfect music to go to sleep to, without actually inducing sleep. Theres something at once modern and primeval about it, and it urges the listener to dream on an epic scale without requiring epic amounts of energy to do it. This isnt a work that I will ever feel passionately about because its only interested in the passion of dreams, which are usually distant from the dreamer, somewhat aloof and impersonal. Infrared Clock is something of an opiate.

What I Think About It

Where Inertia had tightly knit arrangements with club-ish drums, Infrared Clock meanders. It meanders in the same way Peter Gabriel does with many of his songs and keyboard parts. It also has a world music feel because the drum tracks (especially track 8, Hidden Element) have a world beat tinge to them that Inertia lacked. It also has an element of Pink Floyd, especially the beginning of Shine of You Crazy Diamond, on the album Wish You Were Here. Last but not least, it shares some qualities with Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack and I even hear a touch of Jan Hammer in the mix. The best part about this album is its pacing, the same pacing the Blade Runner soundtrack has, the same pacing as Shine on You Crazy Diamond, and Di Evantile rarely departs from it. If the pace changes on this album, its only for a very brief period of time. The pace, along with a wide variety of keyboard sounds, creates a fantastic sense of space that is hypnotic. Admittedly, some of the keyboard pads are obvious, like the female choral pad at the start. Its distracting sometimes from the music when you hear a canned sound and you know what keyboard it comes from. (Personally, if a band is going to use a preset, Id prefer it if it was at least disguised with some effects. Presets are for trying the instrument out in the store! Its important for musicians to make each sound totally their own.) The pace is what makes this album great. The slowness of it takes the edge off that part of the album which is obviously programmed. It makes it feel more human, and it has to be said that some of the playing on this album, especially the piano, is high caliber. I especially like the piano on the fist track, Intuition. The part doesnt require great dexterity, but to brush the piano languidly over some pads and draw the listener in takes great taste, and Di Evantiles broad taste in music is evident on this album. This album should appeal across demographic lines, more so than Inertia. Its appeal is so obvious and Di Evantiles skill so apparent that Im left to wonder why no one from film or TV has explored Di Evantiles capacities. I have no doubt that the mind behind this act could score a movie or contribute heavily to a TV show.

Steve Perry (no relation)